A Day in the Life: Abroad in Barcelona
Our writers have been fortunate enough to study all across Europe, and we can confidently say you really can’t go wrong when picking a city… but, here is a peek into what you would experience if you chose Barcelona.
Elon University students are studying at two universities this semester: CIEE and Universidad Pompeu Fabra. Mondays through Thursdays consist mostly of classes and travel time between the two campuses.
Both campuses are amazing in their own ways. CIEE is a small school, only one building, on one of the few streets that has preserved its original character. Universidad Pompeu Fabra is a public university with multiple campuses throughout the city. The language and culture students are lucky to be on the UPF Ciutadella campus that's spitting distance to the beach. While our school days are packed to the brim with classes and travel, we are still lucky enough to be doing it all within the heart of Barcelona.
I am a part of the Language & Culture program so I begin my days with Spanish class Monday through Thursday. All students within this program have Spanish class at the same time, from 10:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. There are a variety of levels that are offered from elementary to advanced. Two of my roommates and I left our apartment at about 9:30 a.m. to leave enough time to stop at our favorite local coffee stand! At the start of the semester, we tried and tried to embrace the European coffee culture and have a tiny mug of espresso, but we cannot say we succeeded. We are still suckers for a big iced almond milk latte with vanilla syrup and ice-filled to the brim to go, and GoodNews Coffee is one of the few places we have found that makes that! From there we begin our day…
The bus from the student housing to Spanish class takes about forty minutes and includes one transfer. Barcelona’s public transportation system is huge and can be quite intimidating but Google Maps is always there to help you. It will tell you all the options like what line, what stops you’ll pass and the departure times. Our final stop is right next to UPF and usually arrives with a few minutes to spare before class.
Views from campus. Photo by Katie Everitt.
Spanish class is my favorite class because it’s very intimate. Since we meet for ten hours a week, we became very close very quickly. This is my favorite kind of learning environment and really reminds me of high school where you go to the same class, at the same time, every day. Sure there are some cons to this, and it can grow to become repetitive, but it has given me the most intimate learning experience here yet. After Spanish class, I have about two hours until my next class which is at CIEE. A group of about five other Elon students and I always find a local lunch spot in between UPF and CIEE and plant ourselves there to finish up some homework before class. Lunch spots near both campuses fill up with local students and business people on weekdays. We always feel a part of the local day-to-day culture when we are grabbing a bite to eat between classes or meetings!
One of our favorite lunch stops. Photo by Katie Everitt.
In between classes, the CIEE courtyard tables are full of students from Elon University, Wake Forest University or Babson College, as well as some other United States schools. Unlike UPF you will only hear conversations in English here, which can be quite comforting and a bit of a break after a long day of exercising your Spanish skills.
Classes here are a bit shorter than those at UPF. Each day I have one beginning at 2:15 p.m until 3:45 p.m. I am taking Urban Culture in Contemporary Barcelona and Literary Images of Catalonia and Spain. These classes are structured a lot like those at Elon University with discussions and daily homework; but unlike in the United States, we get to go on weekly field trips. This past month I have toured Orwell’s Square, underground Spanish Civil War bunkers, Antonio Gaudí’s pieces of work, and El Raval street art. The teachers love walking you through the city they call home and bringing you eye to eye with the places and things we discuss in class.
On Tuesdays and Thursdays, my school day concludes there. But on Mondays and Wednesdays, I leave CIEE and take the bus back to UPF! At this point in the day, I am exhausted and need another coffee fix. Unfortunately, we don’t have any time for anything more than a latte at Cafe Menssana, which is the closest spot next to UPF and always super fast. My next and final class of the day is The Collectivity Revolution from 4:30 p.m. until 6:30 p.m. This class is more lecture-based which can be a good change of pace after moving around all day. Nonetheless, after this class, I am ready for a nap.
We are not offered a food plan here and it is rarely problematic but after these long school days, it is. I always dread going home and cooking dinner for myself. Our block has an abundance of poke bowls and sushi places, which is my apartment's go-to, but there is also a stretch of authentic tapas places one block away. These options make cooking dinner for yourself even less appealing than it was before.
Everything in Barcelona happens about three hours later than it would in Elon, North Carolina. Dinner is never any earlier than 9:00 p.m. and nightlife never begins any earlier than midnight which makes late classes much more bearable. Your day is nowhere near its end after that 6:00 p.m. class. You can still shop, eat, do errands and much more.
Golden hour hits different in Spain. Photo by Katie Everitt.
Barcelona has started to seem more like the city that never sleeps to me than how New York City is. To celebrate the end of a long week… or maybe just a long day… my roommates and I will stroll around the Eixample district to find a spot for a glass of sangria as a nightcap (and yes, sangria is better in Spain, FYI).
On Thursday nights, the apartment building becomes a bit quieter as people embark on their weekend travels. Granted the pandemic has limited our ability to travel to some places, it is always possible to travel within Spain. Thursday night or Friday morning flights are the most popular because the prices drop the lowest then. One rule of thumb I would advise you to follow is to pick a city you would be happy in if you were not able to travel. At the end of the week, if I do not have any weekend travel plans, I am just as excited to stay in Barcelona as I was to see the Amalfi Coast or another destination.
While every day and week is different, this article summarizes the gist of life here in Barcelona as an abroad student. Barcelona is a beautiful city with great energy that makes me happy to call this place my home for three months.
Stay tuned for next week's article with a spotlight on one of our Edge writers who is studying in London, U.K.